To this day, I will never figure out why so many people favorited this story. Well, I am continuing it, but I'm going to start by updating this chapter a bit. Just know that I really wanted to update this story and make it more descriptive in some places and fix some problems I had with it. Also I may be on a bit of an Acchi Kocchi kick again. That's all. Anyways, hope you enjoy the update.

"I-Io, w-what are you-?!" Tsumiki was cut off by Io putting his hand on her cheek, making them flush a deep red.

"Tsumiki…" Io whispered, giving her a warm smile.

Io gave Tsumiki a loving gaze, making Tsumiki swear that her heart was about to burst. He pulled her into his arms. She froze in complete shock at this action.

"Wha-wha-wha-wha-?!"

Tsumiki's eyes shrunk as Io was leaned forward.

'I-Is he a-a-bout to k-k-k-ki-?!'

Tsumiki's body was frozen in place, shaking from excitement, nervousness, and a small amount of fear. Her mind was racing a million miles a second as Io drew closer and closer, closing his eyes. She could feel his warm breath on her face, as their faces were only centimeters apart…

BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP

The sound of her alarm clock made Tsumiki jump out of the dream. She whipped her head left and right, taking in the surroundings of her room. This was indeed her room and Io was nowhere in sight, meaning…

'Damn it, just another dream!' Tsumiki thought angrily, kicking the blanket that she was under off of her.

She noticed that some of the blanket had bloodstains painted on it. She looked at her bedroom mirror and saw a more than modest amount of blood dripping from her nose. She made a mental note to throw her sheets in the washer before she left for school today.

'But it felt so real this time…'

She was completely mystified by her dream. The warmth from his hand, his arms wrapped around her body, and his breath still lingered from the dream. Just the mere thought of the dream nearly made blood erupt from her nose again. Sure, she has had many dreams like this before, but they had never felt so real before. She wished that something like that would happen, but she already knew how dense Io was. He would never do something like that…at least not without her having to confess to him first; a feat that was currently impossible for her, due to her own nerves and constant teasing from Sakaki and Mayoi. Tsumiki sighed as she looked at her alarm clock.

8 am. Her eyes widened in horror.

"Nyuu?! I-I slept in!"

She jumped out of her bed and got prepared for school as fast as she could. A mere twenty minutes later, Tsumiki dashed out of her front door and into the snow. She raced towards the train station, hoping that Io was still there waiting for her.

At the train station…

'Maybe Tsumiki is sick today,' Io thought, looking at the time on his phone.

Io was standing in front of the station, waiting for Tsumiki. They had agreed to meet up at the train station, so they could walk to school together. She usually waits for him in front of the station and very rarely goes on ahead of him, even though she doesn't go very far. Suddenly, Io felt a weird sense of worry that he never felt before. Sure, he usually worries about all of his friends, especially Tsumiki. However, this felt a bit different. He didn't get a chance to process those feeling, as his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running footsteps crunching in the snow. He turned to see the small, cat-like girl in question standing next to him, breathing heavily.

"Tsumiki?" Io worriedly said, turning to the exhausted girl. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm f-fine."

Io gently rubbed her head. Tsumiki gave her usual response; her cat ears appeared, her cheeks turned pink, and she purred quietly. He was very slightly confused. Usually Tsumiki beat him to the station most days. She was more of a morning person than he was. What could have caused her to be late today? His thought process was cut short when he noticed the heavy breathing stopped. He stopped rubbing Tsumiki's head and looked at his watch.

8:30. Twenty minutes before school starts.

"Are you ready to go?" Io asked.

Tsumiki gave him a nod and they started to walk toward the school.

"I-Io, why did you wait for me?" Tsumiki asked. "You could've gone to school without me."

"We agreed to meet up at the train station, so we could walk to school together, right?" Io answered, giving the cat-like girl a smile.

Her heart skipped a beat seeing him smile at her. "I-I know we agreed to do that, b-but why did you wait for m-me?" Tsumiki stuttered, nervously. "I-I could've been sick or something."

Io paused for a moment before answering, "True, but I wanted to wait for you. It would've been unkind of me to just leave you there."

Tsumiki's cheeks turned pink as she looked away from him. He was always a gentleman, wasn't he? "T-Thanks, Io."

He gave her another warm smile in response. Io's smile brought back the dream from last night. That wonderful dream. Her face flared and steam started to erupt from her head. This was way too much for her this early in the morning.

"Good morning, Io-san, Tsumiki-san!"

Io turned around to see Mayoi and Hime waving to them.

"Good morning," Io greeted.

He was expecting to hear a second 'Good morning' from Tsumiki. Nothing. He looked to at the now red-faced girl.

"T-Tsumiki?! What's wrong?!" Io asked.

Mayoi spotted the flustered, cat-like girl and smirked. She knew she wouldn't let this opportunity to tease Tsumiki go by. She wouldn't let any opportunity pass her by.

"Io-san, what did you do?" she asked, accusingly, but playfully.

Io looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

'As dense as ever, Io-san,' Mayoi thought in her head.

"Whatever you did caused Tsumiki-san to have yet another fantasy," she smirked, shrugging her shoulders.

"F-Fantasy?!" Hime exclaimed, confused. "W-What kind of fantasy would Tsumiki-san be having?!"

"One that would probably involve Io-san saying, 'I love you, Tsumiki,' and them sharing a kiss, nyaa~," Mayoi answered.

"A-A k-kiss?!" Hime started to fall backwards.

Thud!

Hime had, predictably, fallen to the ground, blood pouring out of her nose. Mayoi felt a chill roll down her spine. A very familiar chill of a certain someone giving her a death glare. She shivered before slowing turning toward Tsumiki. One thought went through her head as Tsumiki walked up to her:

'Oh no…not again.'

Smash!

Io, Hime, and Tsumiki kept walking toward the school entrance, leaving Mayoi behind, who just got her head was kicked into the wall for a third time.

Lunch time…

As soon as classes ended for lunch, Io darted from the classroom and met up with Sakaki, who was also running down the hallway.

"I'm guessing teriyaki and egg sandwiches are half-off again, because they just jumped out the window," Mayoi said, walking into the classroom with her lunch.

"Again?" Hime asked, sighing in disbelief.

Tsumiki drowned out their conversation. That one dream had been on her mind the whole day. She barely got all of her notes written. She did everything in her power to keep herself from losing it. Ever since that one day when the school day was halved due to a majority of students being home sick with the flu (AN: Episode 11, Part B for context), she's been having dreams about Io confessing to her every night. However, they were nothing compared to the one last night. Not a single dream or nightmare that she had prior felt so close to reality that it was constantly affecting her for the entire day. She felt her face heat up again, just thinking about it.

"Tsumiki-san?"

She snapped out of her thoughts. Hime and Mayoi were staring at her, worried and confused expressions on their faces.

"W-what?" she asked.

"Are you okay?" Hime asked. "Your face is all red."

Tsumiki quickly nodded.

"Are you having fantasies about you and Io-san, nyaa~?" Mayoi teased with a smirk.

She only glared at Mayoi and gave a tired sigh. Normally, she would've given Mayoi a good smack on the head that would probably send her flying into the wall, but she just didn't feel up to it. She was too exhausted to even try. Instead, she just laid her arms on the desk and rested her head on top of them. She also would've eaten, but she forgot to make her lunch before she left her house.

"Tsumiki? What's wrong?"

She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Io and Sakaki, both holding teriyaki and egg sandwiches. The moment she saw Io's concerned face, she blushed and hid her face behind her arms. Of course, as much as she loved him, she didn't want to talk to him right now. She didn't want to talk to anyone really.

"I'm…just tired," Tsumiki sighed, watching Io sit down next to her.

She felt Io start rubbing her head, making her cat ears appear. She yawned and closed her eyes, not even caring if Sakaki and Mayoi started teasing her. The more Io rubbed her head, the drowsier she became. Eventually, she fell asleep with a content look on her face.

"Tsumiki?"

Io looked confused as he stopped rubbing Tsumiki's head. He could just barely hear her quiet, muffled snores.

"T-Tsumiki-san fell asleep?!" Hime exclaimed quietly, her nose bleeding.

"I guess she really was tired today," Mayoi said, a little bit disappointed.

She was watching her the entire class and noticed that she was spacing out a lot. She was going to say that she was spacing out because of Io, but now she couldn't. Well she could, but did she want to wake up Tsumiki and embarrass her immediately after? Especially after what she did this morning? No. She didn't.

"Good job!" Sakaki chuckled, giving Io a thumbs up.

Io shushed everyone, not wanting Tsumiki to wake up. He started rubbing her head again, smiling at the small, napping, cat-like girl.

After school…

The final bell rung, signaling teachers to wrap up their lessons the let their students go home for the evening. The group didn't stay behind and talk to each other on this particular day. This was a rare occasion where everyone had plans and couldn't stay behind to talk. Hime and Sakaki both had to work today at the Hatch Potch. Mayoi left early, probably going home plan something other scheme to get Tsumiki to confess to Io… or at very least make her embarrassed. The only two that remained were Io and Tsumiki.

"Tsumiki, can I talk to you for a moment?" Io asked, walking up to her desk.

"Y-yes, I-Io?" Tsumiki answered, her cat ears appearing again.

She was still in the middle of packing up her things, but she had stopped when Io started to talk to her. Her cheeks turned pink, her cat ears started to twitch, and she started to grip the top of her book bag tightly.

"I wanted to know if you would like to come over today," Io said.

She thought her heart stopped when he asked that. He was inviting her over? While she wasn't unwelcome in his home, Io normally doesn't go out of his way to invite people over.

"W-w-w-w-why?" Tsumiki asked, her cat ears now standing straight up.

"Mayoi said that she noticed that you were spacing out today because you were tired," Io started to answer, giving her a smile," I just thought that I could help you get caught up on anything that you may have missed today."

Tsumiki didn't know if she should be mad at Mayoi for telling Io that she wasn't paying attention to the lecture or if she should be happy that Mayoi just gave her a chance to actually be alone with Io without anybody interfering for once. She did know one thing, though: she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity that would probably never appear again.

"S-s-s-sure."

So the weird… cliffhanger is still kinda here. I did a little extra research and figured out that Japanese school start somewhere between 8:30 and 8:50 in the morning. I believe that middle and high school start around 8:45 and 8:50 am. So I decided to make their classes start at 8:50 am, since there wasn't a real indication on when they started school in the anime or 4koma manga. At least none that I saw. I hope you guys enjoy the slightly updated story. I'm going to try to get the second chapter within the next two weeks. Keyword being "try". Anyways, you guys stay awesome, have a fantastic day/evening/night, and Happy Birthday if today is your birthday while reading this. See you all in the next chapter!